If we look at the way the universe behaves, quantum mechanics gives us fundamental, unavoidable indeterminacy, so that alternative histories of the universe can be assigned probability.
Murray Gell-MannRead
What is especially striking and remarkable is that in fundamental physics a beautiful or elegant theory is more likely to be right than a theory that is inelegant.
Interpretation
Elegant theories in physics are often more accurate than those that are not.
Murray Gell-Mann's quote emphasizes the intrinsic connection between beauty and truth in scientific theories. He suggests that theories which possess elegance and simplicity are more likely to be correct compared to those that are complex and inelegant, highlighting the importance of aesthetics in scientific understanding and discovery.
In practice
In a lecture on theoretical physics, one might reference Gell-Mann's quote to emphasize the pursuit of elegant solutions.
If we look at the way the universe behaves, quantum mechanics gives us fundamental, unavoidable indeterminacy, so that alternative histories of the universe can be assigned probability.
Just because things get a little dingy at the subatomic level doesn't mean all bets are off.
Sometimes the probabilities are very close to certainties, but they're never really certainties
If someone says that he can think or talk about quantum physics without becoming dizzy, that shows only that he has not understood anything whatever about it.
To invoke the origin of the DNA/protein machine by invoking a supernatural Designer is to explain precisely nothing - for it leaves unexplained the origin of the Designer.
This fascination with computer models is something I understand very well. Richard Feynmann called it a disease. I fear he is right.
Climate change is real. Climate change is being substantially increased by humans and the carbon we put into the atmosphere. And it appears to be speeding up. If science has made any mistakes, science has been underestimating it.
I was born on January 8, 1942, exactly three hundred years after the death of Galileo. I estimate, however, that about two hundred thousand other babies were also born that day. I don't know whether any of them was later interested in astronomy.
I have come to the conclusion that Darwinism is not a testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research programme.
O telescope, instrument of much knowledge, more precious than any sceptre!
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.